I've built my career in UX and product design leadership on the following core practices:
Draw on my extensive UX knowledge and experience to create a user-centered vision and strategy that also helps the company achieve their business goals,
Effectively collaborate cross-functionally with product/business, engineering, and other stakeholders on a daily basis,
Implement a UX process that is tailored to the team(s) and company, is repeatable and scalable, and integrates smoothly with other teams' practices, and
Hire UXers that are user-focused, with good understanding of UX fundamentals, then put them into position to do their best work by championing UX in the organization, cultivating shared vision, being a servant leader, and mentoring them in best practices for craft, process, collaboration, creativity, and innovation, so they can advance in their careers.
Read on to learn more about what I can bring to your organization to help you 10x your UX!
Diverse Experience
20+ years of Director- and VP-level experience in UX and product design across enterprise, B2B, and B2C / DTC products.
Experience in a variety of industries, including: e-commerce, healthcare, pharma, cybersecurity, education, telecom, marketing, dev tools, CRM, publishing, CMS, human factors research, government, and more.
Success in diverse technical and business environments, from start-ups to large enterprises.
Global experience working both onsite and virtually with staff and clients around the world, including in Europe, Asia, South America, and Australia.
Team Leadership
20+ years of experience hiring and managing cross-functional UX and Product Development teams of all sizes.
I enjoy working as a "player-coach" leader, using my many years of UX experience to mentor UXers and other product development professionals.
I'm a servant leader, focusing on giving my team members what they need to do their best work. I place great value on facilitating the growth of team members in their specific disciplines but also in helping them develop an understanding of business needs and constraints, teaching them the best ways to present their work and collaborate with stakeholders in various domains, and cultivating true empathy for users.
Scalable, Repeatable Design Processes
I've successfully implemented modern, repeatable, full life-cycle design processes for both small and large product teams.
13+ years of experience in integrating design processes into Lean and Agile development methodologies, including SCRUM and Kanban.
I've used all the major tools for managing the process, including Jira, Confluence, MS Teams, Github, Gitlab, and more.
I've lead product teams in the design and development of many SaaS/web and mobile apps, from conception and design to development, launch, and operations.
I excel at presenting research and ideas in a way that is understandable, persuasive, and engaging for the full range of stakeholders, including the C-suite.
User Research and Design Thinking
Vast experience in user research and building a design thinking culture within organizations.
I've conducted and analyzed hundreds of user interviews, field studies (ethnography), journey mapping activities, usability tests, quantitative (analytics) data, and design sprints.
Highly collaborative and communicative with all stakeholders, from users to product managers to engineers to marketing to executives.
I'm trained and experienced in facilitating Design Sprints, as developed by Jake Knapp at Google Ventures. I've found them to be instrumental in exploring ideas quickly, enhancing stakeholder buy-in, improving agility, and cultivating a Design Thinking culture. Learn more about my experience with Design Thinking and Design Sprints.
Hands-on Skills
I'm a hands-on leader and coach / mentor, with extensive experience in:
user research
information architecture
visual design
interaction design
workflow design
usability testing
collaboration and presentations
I use modern design and prototyping tools such as:
Figma
Sketch
InVision
Zeplin
Miro
Balsamiq Wireframes
Adobe XD & CC
and more
Modern Design Techniques & Architectures
I'm highly experienced in modern UX techniques and architectures for desktop browsers, tablets, and smartphones, plus native apps for mobile, including:
Responsive Design
Mobile First Design
Design Systems & Web Components
Native Mobile App Design
Design Sprints
Inclusive Design and Accessibility (a11y, WCAG)
Single Page Apps (SPAs)
UI frameworks like Vue.js, Angular, etc.
Micro front-ends architecture,
and more
Creative and Technical
B.S. in Computer Science. My "superpower" is having a unique understanding of the needs & concerns of both designers and engineers / developers.
Awarded a U.S. Patent for the design of a risk analysis method and system.
Certified in the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), for both the Agilist and Product Manager / Product Owner disciplines.
Extensive background in human factors, having worked 8+ years with Ph.D. psychologists studying human factors and cognitive psychology in virtual reality flight simulation.
Completed dozens of UX classes from instructors such as Luke Wroblewski, Jakob Nielsen, Bruce Tognazzini, Don Norman (Nielsen Norman Group), Alan Cooper, Josh Clark, and many other expert UX practitioners.